8v71n with unknown v drive in AM General things to check before driving it.

Hello first post here so I hope I put this in the right location. I am currently in the process of buying a 1977 am general 40 ft converted bus. I have new tires on the way so it can be driven home. I know a little about the Detroit 8v71 but have never seen one in this configuration with the tilted engine and the V drive. It looks much the same as the gm setups I have found in my research.

My question is does anyone have any advice or known problem areas to be aware of before I make the 70 mile (mostly freeway) drive home? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Friday was the last it was ran. Oil looks dark but is right where it should be.The person I am buying the bus from never drove it more than moving it around his property. He did however run it up to temp at least every other month for the last two years. I trust the Detroit to get me there as it runs great. I know nothing about these automatic v drives. All the info I find is for the gm busses. The running gear looks the same but I am no expert. It has the "lazy" style 8v71 with the block laying on its side and the v drive behind it at an angle. Only 3,517 of these busses made so info is scarce. Just like me to buy an oddball lol. Price was right though.

Salkum washington. The bus is in camas wa. We are parked at a Walmart for the night till the tire shops are open. The bus runs and drives great. Its a little intimidating on small roads. Its a model 10240 am general. 102" width is sketchy on small roads in the dark when you have never driven a bus this big. My wife kept calling me to tell me to get off the shoulder and hog the road a bit.

Easy 2-stroke driving tip - DON'T LUG IT!
Keep the revs at about 1900 when climbing grades, manually shift down to 2nd (if you have a V730 transmission), and use a 3/4 throttle. Never floor it uphill. There's only one gauge that will save your butt, and that's for engine coolant temperature. Watch it like a hawk, especially when climbing. If the temp gauge doesn't work or isn't trustworthy, fix it before driving anywhere.

Oh, one more thing. Use straight 40-weight CF-2 oil only, nothing else. No multigrades, ever. Sulfated ash needs to be no more than 1%, so that means Chevron Delo 100 (not Delo 400), Mobil Delvac 1240, Shell Rotella T (whichever one is CF-2), or whatever else you can find that says CF-2 on the container. If it doesn't say that, don't use it.

If AM General made 3517 of your bus, that's still about twenty times more than Crown made of mine! Mine is, AFAIK, the only fully-converted such bus anywhere, so that means it's unique. Not slightly unique, not unique-ish, not one of a few - I mean the only converted Super II in the whole damn world, and because I can confidentally say that there aren't others in any other dimensions of space-time, it's the only one in the entire galaxy. Now that's unique!

I got lucky and it came with 4 cases of delo 100 40wt as well as a full filter change. The coolant temp gague does work(both actually) and it is a damn good thing too. We lost the fan belts part way home. I had to make 6 sets of paracord belts and one set out of ratchet strap. Finally found some belts in longview. I would make a set, fire it up and watch the temp gauge drop from the engine bay till it got to about 170ish. Then I'd fire it up and drive another exit up the freeway and watch the temp gauge up front and try to keep my colon from eating the seat! It would warm up and I would pull over and start again. Not much fun with a motor thats not known for liking hi temps. Thanks for the replies.